It was Minor IR. As soon as he is healthy the Bills have to release him and cannot sign him unless he clears waivers.

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And as a vested veteran, his contract was guaranteed since he was on the roster for game 1. So now he's gone from the Bills but they are on the hook for the entire salary...What was the point of using Minor IR vs regular IR????
Oh I forgot , it's the Bills, never mind.........

And as a vested veteran, his contract was guaranteed since he was on the roster for game 1. So now he's gone from the Bills but they are on the hook for the entire salary...What was the point of using Minor IR vs regular IR????
Oh I forgot , it's the Bills, never mind.........

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The point was to get a guy they considered a locker room problem out of the locker room.

The point was to get a guy they considered a locker room problem out of the locker room.

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Interesting! Any more info on this?

When I first read about the mysterious "minor IR" the only explanations I could imagine were extending courtesy to a veteran whose days with the team were clearly over but who wanted a chance to find a new home, or a team just wanting a guy flat-out gone.

Thanks for bringing up this topic. I was thinking about this the other day myself. If and when he is released the Pats should seriously consider picking him up. We all know we could use the depth in the secondary.

How would this work? Would every team have a chance to pick him up while he goes thru waivers? Would he just pass thru giving the Pats a chance to bring him in?

We still do have that money under the cap. Is Buffalo really on the hook for all of his salary?

We've gotten some more information regarding the manner in which Bills safety Troy Vincent landed on IR. And the manner in which the situation was handled by the team convinces us that G.M. Marv Levy has little or no skill when it comes to the complexities of managing an NFL roster.​

For starters, it turns out that there really is a "minor" Injured Reserve. It's a procedure used in lieu of an injury settlement, pursuant to which the player is added to IR but must be released when healthy.​

When a player is on "major" IR, he's done for the year and gets paid his normal salary. ​

But in Vincent's case, the end result is the same -- the Bills will owe him his entire salary for 2006. Why? Because Vincent is a vested veteran entitled to take the balance of his $2.6 million salary as termination pay.​

And once he's healthy, Vincent can sign with another team and receive wages on top of the $2.6 million base salary he'll get from the Bills.​

In hindsight (or if Levy had applied any foresight), the Bills would have released Vincent prior to the start of the regular season. He then could have been re-signed after the first game, and his full salary would not have been guaranteed.​

So while Levy might have been a very good coach, running the team is a much different endeavor. In this specific case, Levy's failure to understand the rules has forced his boss to pay $2.6 million to a guy who was available for only one game.​

Meanwhile, we're hearing that the injury really isn't very significant, and that Vincent could be healthy soon. So when he's healthy (and then released), Vincent will be able to sign with any other team in the league.​

Technically, Vincent would have to clear waivers if he's released after the trading deadline. But it's unlikely that anyone else would claim his contract when he can be signed the next day for a lower contract.​

So look for Vincent to be playing for another team at some point this year, even though he'll be receiving the bulk of his compensation from the Buffalo Bills.​